Todd Anderson with SMH Consultants, Utilities Superintendent Scott Robertson, Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator Kyle Headrick, addressed the City Council Monday, July 8 regarding improvements to be made to the Wastwater treatment plant.

According to Anderson, a functioning headworks building was the highest priority.

Currently, the headworks at the wastewater treatment plant are partially inoperable, according to City Administrator John Carder.

“We want to focus on the headworks and have some minor changes to the aeration basin. We are replacing the clarifiers and putting on covers. The headworks building, however, are going to be totally different than what you have and that is the single biggest entity to the plant,” he said.

Anderson explained the importance of the headworks.

“The wastewater comes in from two pipes and brings it into the new building. Within the building, we would need a dumpster for some of the materials from the raw wastewater flow,” he said.

Once the largest of materials has been removed, water will continue be filtered.

“Within the headworks building itself, flow will come into a channel and the whole town enter headworks building with a bar screen. What is collected on the screen will go to an augur, is compressed and put into a dumpster,” he said.

In case of an emergency, repairs or an inundation of water, an overflow/bypass channel will be constructed.

“Adjacent to main channel is a bypass channel, if we have to take the bar screen out of service, we have a channel so we can perform maintenance. If you have a high rain event and there is more water coming in or starts to back up, there is a way that, if the water gets to a certain depth, it will fall over and into that bypass. I don’t anticipate that happening. I don’t anticipate that because this is a gravity plant,” said Anderson.

Anderson said once the water is in the headworks building, it will be measured.

“Once it is through the screen, it will go through a flume, it is a simple and effective means of measuring flow. You are mandated to measure incoming flow,” he said.

Once the volume of wastewater has been determined, the cleaning process will begin.

“The water will go into grit removal system. This is like a clarifier. It is 14-feet deep with a series of trays. The water will come to a stop and the heavier material will filter. There’s a weyr that is lower than the 6-foot walls for the water to spill over, much like a clarifier, into a channel and exit into aeration basin,” said Anderson.

Once again, diversions will be in place for maintenance on equipment.

“If you have to take this out of service, there is a stop plate and divert. That would be very rare,” he said.

The material filtered out of the water would move through another process.

“Grit material will be pumped into a grit classifier. A grit cup separates the slurry and removes as much grit as possible and the water will drain into a channel. Grit is augured into dumpster for removal,” he said.

Water would pass into an aeration basin where microbes would continue to treatment process.

According to Carder, the new aeration mechanics would speed and slow according to the oxygen levels in the water, as well as chemical levels.

“To break down things like ammonia, you need lower oxygen levels, but higher oxygen levels are needed for biological material. This would adjust according to the need,” he said.

After passing through the aeration basin, the water would then be pumped into a clarifier. The current basin for the clarifier is sound, but new mechanics are needed, according to Carder.

Following the clarifier, water is treated and sent through a ultra-violet light de-contamination system before being tested and released into Emma Creek.

“The water we are putting into the creek is cleaner than the water that is in the creek,” said Carder.

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